Originally Posted by StangGT909

My situation was not ideal, I was traveling with a child and my wife is pregnant so we had hoped to do some "mild" activities but we ultimately did none. Someone posted a link for a tour if you scroll a few threads back and that looked cool we just couldn't do it.

We booked a rental car through the local company Vamos (recommended via Costa Rica Travel Reddit group) and it included a free car seat. I had planned to go to the national park or nearby water fall but I surprised just how hot/humid it was there. I just didn't want to subject my son to a 1.5 hour drive (3 hours there/back) riding in that kind of awkward car seat considering how hot it was. If it was just me and the wife we would have for sure. Just keep in mind sunset is like 5:55 PM right now and I was 100% comfortable driving there but I'm not sure how I'd feel about driving in the darkness so if you're going somewhere I'd do it early.

We actually discussed that on the way back that if we came back one day and planned to just stay at the resort that I'd probably not bother with the car and just coordinate a shuttle.

If I came without kids, our alternative idea was there is a SLH hotel at the hot springs near La Fortuna but it's 3 hours from Liberia. It would make sense to spend a few nights over there and see the volcano, hot springs, etc. and then come back to the Pacific side for the resort/beach experience.

Giftcards - I added one to apple pay and tried on their reader but it didn't work. They said they had not done it before. It was hot, my kid was being fussy, and we needed to get to the airport so I just gave up. I was successful in using multiple surpass cards to split the payment to at least get my quarter credits this time.